Shawdesh desk: The pandemic continues to grow even as nations race ahead with mass vaccination programmes. In fact, the global Covid caseload has now surged past 102 million.

The total case count reached 102,007,448 while the death toll from the virus climbed to 2,204,494 on Saturday morning, according to Johns Hopkins University (JHU).

The US remained the world’s worst-hit country, with 25,923,061 cases and 436,624 deaths, as per the data.
India’s total caseload stood at 10,720,048 and the death toll at 154, 010 as of Saturday morning.

Brazil on Friday reported 1,119 deaths from Covid in the past 24 hours, taking its death toll to 222,666, the Health Ministry said.

Meanwhile, 59,826 new cases of Covid were detected, bringing the nationwide tally to 9,118,513.

The state of Sao Paulo, the most populated in the country, is the hardest hit, with 1,759,957 cases and 52,722 deaths, followed by Rio de Janeiro, with 516,868 cases and 29,563 deaths.

Brazil has the world’s second-highest Covid death toll, after the United States.